Claiming Holly (Holiday Cove 1)

Princess sat down in the middle of the room and Hunter jerked around to look at her. He loped back to her and sat beside her, mimicking her posture.

“Wow. She knows how to keep him in line,” Rachel commented, smiling over at the two dogs.

I laughed. “Yeah. He’s been like that with her since the beginning. I was telling Jack—” my statement died on my lips, as I was struck by how odd it was to talk about him.

Rachel reached out and touched my shoulder. With a sympathetic look, she spurred me on. “What did you tell him?”

“I—uh—I was telling him I needed to borrow Princess to get Hunter back on his best behavior,” I finished, offering a sad smile that didn’t reach my eyes.

Rachel mirrored the smile but didn’t say anything.

Footsteps in the hall tore my attention from Rachel, and I jumped to attention as Aaron stopped in the doorway. Hunter and Princess went over to him, wagging their tails expectantly. Aaron smiled down at Princess, but there was something dark and distracted behind his eyes as he looked down and scratched her on the top of her head. “Sorry, girl, no cookies right now.”

It was obvious in his tone that something was wrong, and a bubble of panic welled up from my stomach, threatening to choke out my breath again. I wanted to scream, to demand answers, but couldn’t even get out one word. I was rendered silent and helpless as I waited for him to shift his attention from Princess. When he finally dragged his eyes over to mine, I sucked in a breath at the intensity I found looking back at me.

“It was Jack.”

It wasn’t a question.

It was a confirmation.

Aaron nodded after a moment; the corners of his mouth set with deep frown lines. “I’m sorry, Holly.”

Rachel jumped up and wrapped her arms around me as I broke into sobs. “No, no!”

My body wracked against her as she held me still, whispering comforting words in my ear. Not that any of them took away the sharp pain in my chest. As though a white hot knife had just sliced through me. “What am I gonna do?” I sobbed. “It can’t be, he has to be all right, he has to, Rach.”

“I know, honey. We’ll figure it out.” I barely heard Rachel’s whispers over my sobs and Aaron took my hand and squeezed it lightly. I knew he was trying to comfort me, but the pain was so great—it hit me at my core—my soul. He pulled his hand back and cleared his throat.

“One of my friends back at the base gave me the full story and confirmed that it was Jack’s plane that was shot down,” Aaron said.

My sobs hitched at the term full story and I pulled out of Rachel’s arms. “What else did they say?”

Aaron pocketed his hands in the front of his faded jeans. After a deep breath, he continued, “Just so you know, the regular news isn’t going to report this, so it has to stay here,” he waited for Rachel and me to agree, “they were flying an operation to drop some bombs on a group of rebels that had overtaken some of our guys on the ground. Before they reached their target, they came under heavy fire and Boomer’s plane was shot down.” He paused and took a deep breath.

“Oh God no.” I didn’t want to believe Jack was gone. He couldn’t be. Aaron looked at Princess and back at me and continued.

“Boomer was flying cover for the bombers. His wingman, Sparks, saw the whole thing. After that hit, from some type of anti-aircraft missile fired from the ground, it knocked out the communication system and the next thing Sparks saw was Boomer’s plane going down.”

I nodded, absorbing each word and imagining the plane hitting the ground. Silent tears streaked down my face, but I was too numb to wipe them away.

“Um—there is one piece of good news, but it’s unconfirmed—” Aaron paused, as though hesitant to even offer the tiny crumb of hope.

“What is it?” I demanded, suddenly exploding out of my state of shock, and ready to lunge across the room and shake it from him.

“Shh, Holly,” Rachel cooed, reaching for my arm to calm me.

I jerked out of her grasp. “Please,” I said, making a concentrated effort to soften my tone.

Aaron reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. “Sparks is pretty sure he saw Boomer eject before the crash.”

“Pretty sure?”

“It was night and there’s nothing out there in the desert.” Aaron explained, a tinge of annoyance in his tone. “And with the rest of Boomer’s plane in a million fuckin’ pieces on the side of some God damned mountain, there isn’t any way to confirm.”

His cutting tone and rage filled eyes shook me from my own anger. I wiped away the remnants of my tears and vowed to keep it together. “I’m sorry, Aaron, I just don’t understand…”